LOS ANGELES — Follow along for real-time, on-the-carpet and behind-the-scenes updates on the 2023 Grammy Awards from The Associated Press. Live updates — any times Pacific — are brought to you by AP journalists at the show in Los Angeles and around the country.
The show closed a little past 8:50 p.m., with DJ Khaled's “God Did” serving a moody and ethereal finale set outdoors in downtown Los Angeles. The performance featured Fridayy, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend and Jay Z convening around a tableau reminiscent of “The Last Supper.”
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TROPHY TALLY
It was Beyoncé’s big night, but it ended in Harry’s house.
Harry Styles won the album of the year Grammy for his “Harry’s House.”
He beat out fellow nominees including Adele, Bad Bunny, and Beyoncé, who became the biggest career Grammy winner ever earlier in the evening but was shut out in the major categories.
Host Trevor Noah brought a superfan of each nominee on stage, and let the woman who loves Styles read the winner. Her voice quivered into a scream as she said “Harry Styles!”
He swept her off her feet into a long, leaping embrace, then let loose a stream of what were surely expletives, bleeped by CBS.
The rest of his speech was a lot more deadpan than his fan’s.
“I’ve been so, so inspired by all the artists in this category,” he said. “At a lot of different times in my life, I’ve listened to everyone in this category, when I’m alone,” he said.
“There is no such thing as best,” in music, he said, adding “this is really kind.”
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MIC DROP
“I’ve been watching y’all on TV for so long."
— Samara Joy, accepting the best new artist award. The jazz singer was in tears.
“I’ve been singing all my life,” she said. “To be here by just being myself, by just being who I was born as, I’m so thankful.”
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BACKSTAGE
Bonnie Raitt was still in shock after winning song of the year for what she called “my little record.”
“To be 73 years old and get a song of the year for my songwriting when I’m barely a songwriter. I do it because I love it,” she said. “It just gives me the drive to keep going.”
Raitt was a surprise winner in a category that included such powerhouses as Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Beyoncé, Adele and Kendrick Lamar.
“They were just massively talented great tunes that represented tremendous excitement of the public both in sales and number ones,” Raitt said of the competition.
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MIC DROP
“In the fifth grade, I skipped school to see you perform. ... You clearly are the artist of our lives.”
— Lizzo to Beyoncé, at the end of her acceptance speech for her own award. Lizzo is taking home record of the year for “About Damn Time.”
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TROPHY TALLY
Bonnie Raitt had never won a songwriting Grammy before tonight. Now she’s won two, including song of the year.
She stunned many — including herself — with the major category win for “Just Like That,” a song about a mother, a son and organ donation.
“The story was so simple and so beautiful for these times,” she said.
Raitt thanked her late friend and collaborator John Prine, whose songwriting style she borrowed for “Just Like That.” The category had 10 nominees.
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8:05 p.m.
We're five minutes past 8 p.m., with an expected end time of 8:30, and there's still five awards and two performances on the slate.
Up now: the new song for social change special merit award, which first lady Jill Biden presented to Iranian artist Shervin Hajipour for “Baraye,” which has become an anthem of protests in Iran.
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SNAPSHOT
Adele won best pop solo performance for “Easy On Me,” off her album “30.”
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50 YEARS OF HIP-HOP
The 50th anniversary of hip-hop was marked with an epic three-part, multigenerational medley during which dozens of artists — including Grandmaster Flash, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Missy Elliott and Lil Baby — performed.
The sprawling tribute was 15 minutes long, but moved at breakneck speed, with legends of the genre taking the stage in quick spurts.
Grandmaster Flash doing part of his seminal hit “The Message” was quickly followed by Run-DMC (in trademark bowler hats) and LL Cool J (in his trademark Kangol hat).
A shout of “let’s hear it for the ladies!” greeted Salt-N-Pepa soon after. Chuck D and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy brought their roar, followed by Ice-T and Queen Latifah.
A huge roar greeted the high-speed fire-spitting of Busta Rhymes. Nelly brought the performance into the 2000s with a flash of “Hot in Herre.”
It ended with everyone on the stage and LL Cool J shouting “Multigenerational! Fifty years!”
Dr. Dre, Elliott and Lil Wayne were honored Thursday night at the Recording Academy's Black Music Collective event.
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MIC DROP
“Where would a lot people in here be without hip-hop?”
— Dr. Dre, accepting the Global Impact Award that bears his name. He pointed to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and said he was “extremely moved” by his award.
“Scratching and mixing on the turntables had me hooked and became an entry point to a 40-year career of doing something that I really loved,” he said.
Dre said “inspiration” is one of his favorite words.
“As a creator, it’s what I’m always in search of and what I hope to leave behind after I’m gone," he said.
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BEY WATCH, BY THE NUMBERS
Eighty-eight career nominations have led to 32 Grammys so far — the night's not over yet. Her first nomination was in 2000, her first two wins a year later.
Three wins — the first three — were as a member of Destiny’s Child.
Twenty-nine were as a solo artist or collaborator with other artists, including Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Megan Thee Stallion and her daughter Blue Ivy Carter.
Four wins were for best R&B song. Four more were for best R&B performance by a duo or group.
Three wins were for best contemporary R&B album. Three more were for best traditional R&B performance.
One win was for song of the year, her only Grammy in any of the so-called big four categories, where she hasn’t fared especially well. That could change later tonight, when she’s up for album, record and song of the year.
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BREAK MY SOLTI
The man whose Grammy record Beyoncé just shattered with her 32nd Grammy had slightly different musical vibes.
Georg Solti was a classical conductor of wide acclaim, but there were no Solti Soldiers that might match the Beyhive.
The Hungarian-born Solti led operatic ensembles and symphony orchestras around Europe and later the U.S. starting in the 1930s. He won his first Grammy in 1963 and his last in 1998, five months after his death at age 84. His last nomination would come in 1999. Beyoncé would receive her first nomination the following year.
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BEY WATCH
She did it, folks: Beyoncé is now the winningest artist in the history of the Grammy Awards. She broke classical conductor Georg Solti's record with her win for best dance/electronic music album for “Renaissance," delivering a speech that was both emotional and composed.
“I’m trying not to be too emotional, I’m trying to just receive this night,” she said, holding her 32nd Grammy.
After thanking her family, she expressed thanks to "the queer community for your love and for inventing the genre.”
Beyoncé's first win came in 2001, when Destiny's Child won two Grammys.
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6:45 p.m.
The always emotional “in memoriam” segment packed several gut punches, opening with Kacey Musgraves tackling the late Loretta Lynn's “Coal Miner's Daughter.” A recording of Jeff Beck's guitar picked up the baton for the next part as his face flashed on the screen.
“I wish I had a time machine, so you could take a ride with me,” Quavo sang in tribute of his nephew and fellow Migos member Takeoff, slain in a Houston shooting last year. His performance of “Without You” was backed by Maverick City Music.
A recording of Crosby, Stills & Nash's “Guinnevere” played as the Grammys remembered David Crosby among several other music luminaries, before the segment ended with a tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie: “Songbird,” as performed by Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and McVie's bandmate Mick Fleetwood.
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MIC DROP
“We say things to provoke thoughts and feelings and emotions.”
— Kendrick Lamar, on the role of artists, while accepting the award for best rap album for “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.”
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BEY WATCH
It's 6:20 p.m. and Beyoncé is in the building! As a reminder, she needs to win just one more award to become the winner of the most Grammys ever.
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MIC DROP
“Se lo quiero dedicar a todas las leyendas y especialmente también a los nuevos, no solamente a las leyendas, sino a los nuevos que mantienen vivo y refrescando el movimiento (de la música urbana), a todos los nuevos talentos sigamos llevando este género a otro nivel."
— Bad Bunny, accepting the award for best música urbana album for “Un Verano Sin Ti," which he also dedicated to Puerto Rico.
That translates to: “I want to dedicate it to all the legends and especially to the new ones, not only the legends, but the new ones who keep the movement (of música urbana) alive and refreshing, to all the new talents, let’s keep taking this genre to another level.”
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MIC DROP
“Sam graciously wanted me to accept this award because I’m the first transgender woman to win this award.”
— Kim Petras, who won the best pop duo/group performance award alongside Sam Smith for their song “Unholy.”
Petras thanked other trans performers who came before her and paved the way for this win, reserving a special shoutout for the Scottish singer Sophie, who died two years ago.
Petras told AP's Krysta Fauria recently that it was a “scary time for transgender kids and people and I think there are just a lot of things that really need to get figured out.”
“I’m scared for the trans community and I just hope I can be a person that makes them forget about those troubles and just makes them have fun for a little bit,” she said.
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ROLL TAPE
Smokey Robinson is stirring it up. The 82-year-old Motown legend is out soon with his first new album in nearly a decade called “Gasms.”
“It’s controversial because when you say ‘gasms,’ the first thing people think about is orgasm,” he told the AP before Friday night’s MusiCares gala.
“Gasms is any good feeling you might get. Anything that makes you happy is a gasm,” he added. “People are going to have to hear it to know what I’m talking about.”
Robinson performed with Stevie Wonder at the Grammys in a performance that had the audience on their feet and Jay-Z singing along. He and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy were honored as MusiCares Persons of the Year for their philanthropy.
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SNAPSHOT
The vibe at the Grammys evoked a nightclub — which these costumed dancers fully enjoyed — with small tables set up for the big names like Taylor Swift, Lizzo and Harry Styles in the center area in front of the stage. The rest of the audience sat in stadium-style seating around them.
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BEY WATCH
At this point, Beyoncé needs just one trophy to become the biggest Grammy winner of all time. She's already tied the record.
She won two awards — for best electronic/dance performance and best traditional R&B performance — in the pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony earlier Sunday, and then added one more for best R&B song (but wasn't there to accept it, with host Trevor Noah promising she was on her way).
That brought her total to 31. If she wins one more she’ll surpass classical conductor Georg Solti to become the all-time champ.
She has four chances to do it.
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TROPHY TALLY
Harry Styles took the first award of the telecast, accepting best pop vocal album for “Harry's House” from presenter Jennifer Lopez. He kept his acceptance short and sweet.
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INTRO TRACK
To bring in the performances, the Grammys decided to go with a personal touch and tap people important to the artists. For Brandi Carlile, it was her wife, Catherine Shepherd, and their two children, who introduced the country music star's performance of “Broken Horses” by calling her “one of the greatest, most authentic artists and human beings on the planet.”
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MIC DROP(S)
Host Trevor Noah said he’d be floating around the room all night: “Think of me as a Chinese spy balloon.”
Some of his selected jokes:
On Bad Bunny: “That album is so fly it makes Trump want to learn Spanish.”
On Beyoncé: “Beyoncé is nominated for her album Renaissance, which is better than anything from the actual Renaissance in my opinion, which was just pictures of grapes and stuff.
On Harry Styles: “Women throw their panties at this man, then he puts them on and looks better than they do.”
On Lizzo: “The most famous flute player in the world since … I’m sure there were others.”
On Taylor Swift: “The only music we listened to more than Taylor Swift’s last year was the hold music for Southwest Airlines.”
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5:10 p.m.
Trevor Noah opened the Grammy Awards standing outside Crypto.Com Arena, celebrating the show’s return to its traditional Los Angeles home for the first time since 2020.
“The best city in the world if you ignore a few other cities,” Noah said.
He then introduced a show-opening performance from Bad Bunny, who started out alone on a platform before the aisles were flood with dancers, some in multicolored skirts, some in giant masks.
After the performance, Noah — returning for a third straight year — opened his monologue amid the audience.
“Every year, I notice that I develop a different rapport with the people in the room,” he told AP's Jonathan Landrum Jr. last week. “That opens you up to a few more jokes and a few more conversations in a way where people understand the context of who you are in relation to them. It means you get to have a little bit of fun without anybody feeling like you’re dunking on them.”
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READ MORE
Catch AP's live show from the red carpet? Read this story by co-host Gary Gerard Hamilton on what's behind the trend of R&B music becoming more explicit than ever.
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SNAPSHOT
Fashion lover Harry Styles walked the carpet in a rainbow harlequin pattern jumpsuit adorned with Swarovski crystals. His low-cut, multicolored Egonlab look drew cheers. Egonlab is a young brand out of Paris.
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TROPHY TALLY
It isn’t just on television where awards show producers are tough with the music that not-so-subtly tells a winner to wrap things up and get off the stage.
It was a big part of the pre-telecast streamed online, too. After all, there were around 80 Grammys to give out in only three hours.
So it no doubt made for some bruised feelings. If artists didn’t take the hint and wrap things up, an offscreen announcer might even move directly into the next award. And in a big theater, sometimes winners had a long walk to the stage.
Which brings us to the unfortunate Molly Tuttle and her band, the Golden Highway, winner of a Grammy for best bluegrass album. She didn’t even make it up to the stage in time to pick up the trophy. Producers were on to the next award. Even though she got there late, she was out of luck.
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LINER NOTES
The Grammys added five new categories to this year's awards slate: songwriter of the year, non-classical; best spoken word poetry album; alternative music performance; Americana performance and score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media.
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TROPHY TALLY
Tobias Jesso Jr. won the first non-classical songwriter of the year award. The new category recognizes one individual who was the “most prolific” non-performing and non-producing songwriter for a body of new work during an eligibility year.
The songwriter’s category takes a different approach than song of the year, which awards the songwriters who wrote the lyrics or melodies to one song.
“To the songwriting community, this is a big win,” said Jesso Jr., who has worked with a number of major artists including Adele, Harry Styles and FKA Twigs.
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TROPHY TALLY
Bonnie Raitt has won a dozen Grammys spanning more than three decades and a lifetime achievement award.
But she had never won as a songwriter until Sunday.
She won best Americana Roots song for writing “Just Like That.” It was her second straight Grammy win, after also winning best Americana performance, and she had to return to the stage moments after leaving it.
“It’s been so long, hi!” she said. “Thank you so much for honoring my own songwriting.”
“Just Like That” is also nominated for song of the year, to be given away later tonight.
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MIC DROP
“Let it be known, this is for the poets y’all.”
— J. Ivy, thrusting his Grammy for best spoken word poetry album into the air.
The Chicago wordsmith shouted out his high school English teacher 30 years after she singled him out in class.
Ivy’s teacher, Paula Argue, assigned him to write a poem and read it aloud in class at Rich Central High in suburban Chicago. As a shy kid, he was nervous.
“I received a standing ovation that day and I decided to keep going,” Ivy said. “Somebody saw me and gave me a chance.”
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SNAPSHOT
Shania Twain isn’t up for a Grammy. She’s not presenting. That, she says, freed her to have fun with fashion. Twain’s hair was red and her Harris Reed wide-belled pantsuit was adorned with huge black polka dots against white. She topped it off with a high, matching wide-brim hat.
“Here I am with all my new fun things to wear,” she says.
Reed is a young British designer she wanted to support. Her goal: “I just wanted to add some pop and cheer.”
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THEY SAID IT
“I’m probably going to drink.”
— Carly Pearce, on how she’s going to celebrate her first Grammy. She and Ashley McBryde won for best country duo/group performance for “Never Wanted to Be That Girl.”
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50 YEARS OF HIP-HOP
The Grammys marking the 50th anniversary of hip-hop brought out icons like Grandmaster Flash, a pioneer in DJing, who said he was “like a happy granddad.”
“It’s been 50 years. ... I can remember when this was just recreation, going to the park, taking our makeshift sound systems in a supermarket cart, going to your nearest park, plugging in and just doing block parties and here we are now,” he said. “It’s unarguably the biggest music on planet Earth.”
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MIC DROP
“We're here with our pockets empty, but our hands aren't!”
— Sir the Baptist, accepting the award for best roots gospel album on behalf of the Tennessee State University Marching Band for “The Urban Hymnal.” Baptist used his acceptance speech to highlight how underfunded historically Black colleges and universities like Tennessee state are, saying he had to “put my last dime in order to get us across the line.”
The nomination alone marked the first time a college marching band had been nominated in the category, especially significant given the role marching bands play in HBCUs' identities and culture as AP's Travis Loller explained last month. With the win, Tennessee State's “Aristocrat of Bands” beat out the likes of Willie Nelson.
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TROPHY TALLY
Kendrick Lamar can’t be beat for best rap performance.
He extended his record in the category with a sixth career trophy for “The Heart Part 5.”
The 35-year-old rapper from nearby Compton put even more distance between himself and Kanye West and Jay-Z, who are tied with two wins apiece.
Lamar also was honored for his writing with a Grammy for best rap song for “The Heart Part 5.” He shared it with three co-writers.
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THEY SAID IT
“It’s rock ‘n’ roll, man."
— Brandi Carlile, after jogging onstage to accept the trophy for best rock performance for “Broken Horses.” Carlile was the only woman nominated this year in a category long dominated by men.
She wasn't gone from the stage for long. She soon returned to collect the Grammy for best rock song, a writer’s award. She co-wrote “Broken Horses” with twin brothers Phil and Tim Hanseroth.
“Oh my god, this is amazing,” Carlisle shouted. “Oh, I’ll never be the same.”
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TROPHY TALLY
On the heels of announcing the end of his touring days, Ozzy Osbourne has won two Grammys.
“Degradation Rules” by Ozzy Osbourne featuring Tony Iommi won the best metal performance and his album “Patient Number 9” won best rock album. Osbourne’s 2020 album “Ordinary Man” was well received and his 2022 album “Patient Number 9” came into the Grammys with four nominations. The one with Iommi reunited him with his Black Sabbath bandmate. Osbourne did not attend.
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MIC DROP
“I just EGOT!”
— Viola Davis, picking up her Grammy Award for spoken word album. Davis has an Emmy for “How to Get Away With Murder,” an Oscar for “Fences,” a Tony for both “King Hedley II” and “Fences” and now a Grammy for her audiobook performance of her memoir “Finding Me.”
